“Yesterday, in the city of Mosul, the careers of two of the regime’s chief henchmen came to an end. Saddam Hussein’s sons were responsible for torture, maiming and murder of countless Iraqis. Now, more than ever, all Iraqis can know that the former regime is gone and will not be coming back.” –President George W. Bush

U.S. troops, members of Task Force 20 and Charlie Company, 3rd Battalion of the 101st Airborne, surrounded a Mosul villa and demanded its residents surrender; they didn’t, and they are now dead. Two aces from that dastardly Ba'athist regime deck onto the discard pile! Saddam’s foul progeny, sons Odai and Qusai, met their deserved ends. Can Saddam be far behind?

Odai, the elder son, headed the Fedayeen paramilitary forces keeping a murderous grip for his father on Iraqi citizens. Qusai, Saddam’s heir apparent, held primary responsibility for the intelligence and security services, including the Republican Guard and Saddam’s personal security detail. Both men delighted in torture and murder.

On hearing the news, Iraqi citizens erupted in celebration, but back in Washington, Leftist Democrats, who have been promoting “failure” in Iraq as a political maneuver to undermine support for President Bush, were distraught. Typical of their refrain was this comment from New York Demo Rep. Charles Rangel: “We have a law on the books that United States should not be assassinating anybody. How can you get so much satisfaction out of the fact that two bums have been killed? We got bums all over the world and some in the United States.” High on our list of “bums in the United States” … Charles Rangel, et al.

Memo to Chuck: To be perfectly fair, there were, amid all the Iraqi celebrations, a few Iraqis who, like you, wish the tyrants had not been killed. For example, Alaa Hamed, a producer at Odai’s television station, complained, “I don’t want him dead. I want to torture him first!” Alaa had been tortured by Odai for a programming mistake.

Military planners had decided not to broadcast photographs of Saddam’s dead sons so as not to appear boastful – until the Iraqi Interim Authority insisted. After all, a photo is worth a thousand…Iraqi dinars, and this kind of imagery plays well on al-Jazeera throughout Jihadistan. Images of dead tyrants create real command and control concerns for neighboring tyrants.

To wit, no sooner had news of the demise of Odai and Qusai been confirmed than the son of Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi told CNN: “I would like to send this message to the American people and the American government that we, the Libyan people, we want to have a more constructive and fruitful relationship with the Americans…. We don’t want confrontation and aggression and, you know, to fight anymore. It’s over. It’s behind us now.”

President Bush again warned Iraq’s neighbors: “Today, Syria and Iran continue to harbor and assist terrorists. This behavior is completely unacceptable, and states that support terror will be held accountable.” Iran’s intelligence minister has declared Mr. Bush is right, announcing that Iranian officials have in custody “high-ranking” al-Qa'ida members and some smaller fry, although not providing their identities.

Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, back from a five-day tour of Iraq, concluded, “What we are seeing eliminates any moral doubt about whether this was a war against Iraq, or a war for Iraq. This was a war for Iraq.” U.S. civilian administrator for Iraq L. Paul Bremer was also in Washington this week, explaining the growing accomplishments in pacifying the remnants of the Ba'athist regime and their cohorts. Plans are now being accelerated for empowering the new Iraqi Governing Council and its requisite support structures as a democratic government-in-the-making. A civilian Iraqi police force will be assuming more law-enforcement and peacekeeping duties alongside coalition forces, expected to be thus freed for more appropriate missions – like Tuesday’s.

In other news…

Apparently Stephen Hadley, President Bush’s deputy national security adviser, did not get last week’s Federalist memo: “Don’t swap spit with Jacque-asses!” Hadley is now in a contest with CIA director George Tenet to see who can take responsibility for those 16 words in President Bush’s SOTU.

As we noted last week, the Bush administration should never have given this issue legs – unless they are prepared to deliver additional evidence that Iraq attempted to obtain uranium from Niger – thus slaying the SOTU critics. Britain’s MI-6 intelligence service has reconfirmed the planned acquisition – and we hope that confirmation will be broadcast soon!

A footnote…. The French have been uncharacteristically quiet about this whole matter. Perhaps that is because the uranium mines in Niger, a former French colony, are run by a French company, and the French secret service, the DGSE, knew about the contract but did not share that information with the CIA. Our sources suggest that the DGSE may be the British source, but MI-6 is protecting those DGSE agents because the information exchange was not authorized by the pro-Iraq Chirac. (We’ve been “frenched” again!)

Quote of the week…

“A free Iraq will not be a training ground for terrorists, or a funnel of money to terrorists, or provide weapons to terrorists who would willing use them to strike our country or our allies. A free Iraq will not destabilize the Middle East. A free Iraq can set a hopeful example to the entire region and lead other nations to choose freedom. And as the pursuits of freedom replace hatred and resentment and terror in the Middle East, the American people will be more secure.” –President George W. Bush

On cross-examination…

“Can we be sure that terrorism and weapons of mass destruction will join together? Let us say one thing: If we are wrong, we will have destroyed a threat that, at its least, is responsible for inhuman carnage and suffering. That is something I am confident history will forgive. … But if our critics are wrong, if we are right – as I believe with every fiber of instinct and conviction I have that we are – and we do not act, then we will have hesitated in the face of this menace when we should have given leadership.” –British PM Tony Blair addressing the U.S. Congress, last week.

Open query…

“[A]t a safe remove from the danger, some are now trying to cast doubt upon the decision to liberate Iraq. The ability to criticize is one of the great strengths of our [republic]. But those who do so have an obligation to answer this question: How could any responsible leader have ignored the Iraqi threat?” –Vice President Dick Cheney

The BIG lie…

“In his State of the Union address, George W. Bush told us of an imminent threat. …America took him at his word. …A year earlier, that claim was proven false. The CIA knew it. The State Department knew it. The White House knew it. But he told us anyway.” –Excerpt from a Democratic National Committee ad to air nationally. “He’s going down,” claims DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe.